Well, I went on a long hiatus from this then I anticipated. Once again I will try and be more vigilant about updating the blog. Trying to adjust to a new area took a lot of time. Especially when we finally found a house and moved in. Casey survived his first summer, fall training and fall move in for the university. I guess the biggest news is that I have now entered into the university system. At the end of August I accepted a position as a dispatcher for the Office of Public Safety. I work over night so I know what happens when everyone goes to bed. Some nights it's thrilling other nights you are begging for a car to get pulled over just so you have something to do.
As many of you realize it's amazing how much housing and public safety interact with each other on a regular basis. In a way we both have the same goals, to keep the kids safe and let them have a great college experience. We are there to provide help when something bad happens, which we always hope nothing bad happens to students. You are there to provide help if they have issues with simple things. Housing also provides fun and interactive things for the students to do.
From moving around to different universities I have always like to see how the University and even housing interacts with the city around them. Mostly when it comes to major events. Most colleges with football teams have homecoming festivities and they do make sure to provide some that are family friendly. Here we were able to watch the homecoming parade and the girls enjoyed a few bounce houses afterwards. At Halloween RHA put on a Hall-o-ween program, they opened on of the halls to the public and had Halloween themed games as well as trick or treating through the residence hall. My kids thoroughly enjoy that, mostly because it means more candy. As a parent it's nice that college students recognize the need to provide a safe environment for kids to have fun and trick or treat without worrying about traffic or other hazards. I know the college students also love seeing the kids all dressed up.
If your University Housing doesn't already have programs like this lined up for holidays, I honestly would highly encourage you try and start setting it up. I know it's greatly appreciated by parents of smaller kids who doesn't necessarily want to take their kids out trick or treating on the streets. Also here they did an easter egg hunt for the kids, and divided them up by ages so it was more fair for the younger kids. This is good for the community too since not every town has places that do egg hunts or egg drops. It's also a great way for your student leaders to get even more creative especially when it comes to expanding to a larger section of the population and not just planning things for college students. It also gives the public a better look at what goes on in University housing being a bunch of college kids living in dorms. (I know that is a bad word in the housing world, but to be honest, everyone outside of university housing still call them dorms). Honestly planning a community involved event will give your student leaders a little bit more of a challenge because they would have to think about how to cater to a wider audience, especially when it involves children, mainly because you want to make sure you don't exclude any age groups. When you plan a hall only event it's easy to pick something the general population of your hall would like, because they are all around the same age and would probably enjoy the same thing. Letting them get their hands wet into planning something more board would be great real world experience and give you a better sense of how they are at tackling bigger projects.
Hopefully now that I work over night and honestly come 4 a.m. I am usually just trying to stay awake I will keep up with this blog more regularly. I ask only one thing of those who read this. Please share among your university housing friends, I would love to building a reader base and hopefully provide some helpful tips to those in housing and those who are the spouses/significant others of those in housing. I know this post was all over the place but I will come back with more solid topics that pertain mostly to surviving as a residence life spouse or significant other. Hope you will come back to reading and enjoy my insights.
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